March 10th, 2015

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JOY

Tuesday, March 10th, 2015

thefi5thgospel

I feel like I am intersecting (or cutting in on) those who are doing Margaret Feinberg’s book on Joy! 🙂 For more on that see Jason.

It is almost a given any more that most people know the difference between happiness and joy. Refresher time: Happiness depends on circumstances; Joy is in spite of the circumstances. To quote Bobby: “Happiness has to do with what’s happening to us, while joy is grounded in God’s Word, what He has done for us, and our anticipation of Christ’s glorious return.” (p.89)

Too many people, including Christ-followers, are focusing their satisfaction around what makes them happy or “footloose.” If that is the case we will all come up empty and dry. I have read of too many who have attained and obtained and said, “Is this all there is?”

Joy is also the emotion, the state of mind, which allows a person wracked with pain or wallowing in ugly circumstances to say, “I know whom I have believed.” Joy can transform the way we think, act or even speak. I’m not going to lie to you: I used to be one who complained about his lot in life. Why can’t I? How come I? Why not me? You can finish those sentences. I’m not sure when it hit me-but hit me it did-that I was determining my response by my attitude. Instead of “counting it all joy” (James 1: 2), I was “counting the days.” Instead of living in joy, misery was my company. Then one day I woke up and life changed. I changed. My feelings toward God changed.

And get this! I also found it was contagious. I was always a pretty happy-go-lucky guy but even my preaching took on a whole different approach. I think some of that was because I began to enjoy God. Find your delight in God and people will notice.

What are your thoughts? How do you handle “down times?” Are you a joyful person?